The documentary maker is renowned for his coverage of American history over the years.
The American asked what inspired him now to focus on the Roosevelts for his latest series.

M

y collaborator, Geoffrey Ward,
and I, have had a fascination
with the Roosevelts for more than
30 years. Geoffrey’s written two
celebrated books on the early life of
Franklin Roosevelt, and we bumped
into the Roosevelts in a number of
the films we’ve made. They are the
most important American family in
politics. The family touched more
Americans than any other, and had
greater influence. There’s tons on
Theodore, little bit less on Franklin
and less on Eleanor, but nobody
had put all three together as a compelling family drama before.
It’s almost Shakespearian. They
engage age-old questions; what
is the role of Government, what
can a citizen expect from that
Government, what is the nature
of leadership, how does character
contribute to leadership? And
then how is a leader’s character
formed by events? Both Eleanor and
Theodore had childhood traumas,
Franklin was stricken by paralysis at
age 39. We see these amongst more
familiar events: the late 19th century with all its economic tensions,
the First World War, the Depression,
the Second World War, the Cold War.
To see these from the perspectives
of people that we know personally,
that’s why we call it an intimate
history. We’re not lacking in the
top down version, we just felt that
the bottom up, the psychological
viewpoint, was important to help
us understand these extraordinary
people and the events that they

14 October 2014

directed or were directed by.
Their story’s filled with complex
tragedies, success and huge
political power, but also the familiar
problems and joys of ordinary life,
and betrayals, illnesses, alcoholism, madness, death. Over the 104
years of our story, from 1858 when
Theodore Roosevelt was born to
1962 when Eleanor, his favorite
niece, died, you have history firing
on all cylinders.
Was it difficult to filter out what
couldn’t be used and what ended
up in the documentary?
That’s my job. First and foremost,
I’m paid to take things out. The proverbial cutting room floor is never
filled with bad things, it’s always
filled with wonderful things that
just didn’t fit. Raw history is a set
of incoherent events and trying to
superimpose a narrative on things
is a delicate task, one that we spent
more than six years, with this film,
working on, massaging, begging,
cajoling and making those difficult
decisions.
Did you find out things about the
Roosevelts that you didn’t know
before?
I don’t make films about something
I know about, I make films about
things I want to know about. The
former is telling you what you
should know, it has the veneer of
homework. Instead I share the process of discovery. I hope I’ve been
able to share the complicated, irresistible force of Theodore Roosevelt,
the miracle of Eleanor’s human

spirit despite a desperate childhood
with two very complicated parents her icy mother, a great beauty, who
called Eleanor ‘Granny’ because she
was disappointed in her daughter’s
looks and her father, a hopeless
alcoholic - actually insane - who
died, and she idealised him the rest
of her life. Eleanor was orphaned at
very a young age, she was fearful
of everything, and she learned to
master fear well before her husband
told Americans that the only thing
they had to fear was fear itself.
I’m a Lincoln man. Until this
project Abraham Lincoln was by far
and away the best President in my
estimation. Franklin Roosevelt has
risen to parity with Lincoln in my
eyes, and that is about as shocking
for me a discovery as I could make,
and I’m happy to ask Abe to move
over and share the limelight with
Franklin.
Many people compare Lincoln to
Barack Obama, do you see yourself
producing a documentary on
Obama in the future?
Absolutely. Race is the central subtheme in American history after
the nature of freedom, so the first
African-American President is very,
very interesting to me. I’ve spent
a lot of time with him in and out
of the White House, and I’ve just
interviewed him for another film on
Jackie Robinson, the first AfricanAmerican in the American game of
baseball. Give me 15 or 20 years,
enough time to allow the historian’s
perspective to be sharper, and I will